“Nice chest hair, asshole.” This one’s for you, reddit.

Reddit’s atheist community has been extremely kind to the Rock Beyond Belief festival.Without their overwhelming support and pleas for me to keep them informed, I might have given up.

But a recent picture in a news story made me think back to a surreal moment on reddit.

One of my favorite things that I learned from reddit was how to take criticism. Especially extremely harsh but still funny criticism. The first really jarring experience came from December 2010 – 3 months into planning the festival. I got a large Out-Campaign “A” tattoo and shared it with reddit.

Some people were nice. Some were…. something? ‘Mean’ is not the right word for this.

bhamfree: “Soon to be regretted”

qaz456: “obnoxious”[that was the only word in the comment, by the way.]

crumbsinthebed: “Message aside, it’s an unbelievably lame tattoo.”

JesusTheRetard: “What a fairy”

The one that really made me laugh the hardest was:

<deleted>: “Nice chest hair, ASSHOLE!”

I still wonder who talks like that? I would love to drink beer with this strange person. Anyway, after I showed the picture above to some people in the local atheist group, I told them the story. They laughed at reddit weirdos too. Then they made fun of me for a long time. Lots of jokes like “Justin Griffith: The Rock Beyond Thunderdome.”

Later that night, it inspired the girls in MASH Fort Bragg to do this ‘for’ me.

This is for you, reddit.

You wouldn’t believe me, but I actually didn’t even think it hurt. You will notice her hand is smoothing it down, but the camera snapped it with a perfect goofy face. Below, was my real face the whole time.

Seriously.

One of the MASH girls even lost her pants (permanently) for the cause. Jasmyn could not get the wax out, even with the wax remover. Even washing in the laundry didn’t help. She had to wear a towel the rest of the night. Plus, we got these pictures and made jokes about Santorum. “That’s not wax” etc… She was a champ.

Wow…that’s awesome. Thanks. I just woke Lance up because I was laughing so loud.

Haley

I like how, when they get religious tattoos or wear religious jewelry to express the conviction of their beliefs, it’s some deep, meaningful, spiritual confirmation. If we do the same thing to express the conviction of our lack of those beliefs, we are just being assholes.

Keep pissin’ ‘em off, Justin!

priscilla parker

I want the pants as a souvenir.

Jasmyn

Pric, I stuck a paper towel to my ass so I could drive home that morning without ruining the upholstery in my car. They’re still laying on my living room floor where I removed them immediately after getting into my house. Lance thought it was pretty funny.

Justin Griffith

Have they become part of the carpet too? Like are they stuck?

Anonymous Atheist

It didn’t hurt because your chest is now protected by the magical power of atheism, obviously.

http://sciencenotes.wordpress.com/ Markita Lynda—it’s Spring after the Winter that wasn’t

You might have to tell some people it stands for Awesome because being an atheist in the U.S. can still get you killed.

http://sciencenotes.wordpress.com/ Markita Lynda—it’s Spring after the Winter that wasn’t

Anyway, what’s wrong with a modest amount of chest hair?

http://www.facebook.com/tony.agudo tonyagudo

You know, it’s hilarious looking at your face in the first picture, then almost directly down in the second picture there’s an image of a dude making exactly the same face in the background.

Justin Griffith

good eye tony.

http://www.facebook.com/alanrlow alanlow

I just stopped reading and went numb when I saw, “being an atheist in the U.S. can still get you killed.”

I am profoundly sorry for you guys, living like that. We grumble about things over here in Australia but we have a Prime Minister who is a self-professed atheist and proud of it. Even said so on national TV. All power to you and I hope you remove that ridiculous zeitgeist soon.

‘Tis Himself, OM

alanlow,

In the US an admitted atheist would have trouble getting elected dog catcher. It wasn’t until the 1960s that atheists were legally allowed to run for political office.

I never thought I would get my eyebrows waxed, but then I went and got engaged to a girl from the South, and she does not want wild bushes above my eyes, and apparently my appearance is a reflection on her. On the plus side, I get compliments on my clothes (that she picks out of course! )

http://www.nexopia.com/users/victordavid129/blog/1-tips-on-how-to-improve-the-worth-of-your-house home development

I write a leave a response each time I appreciate a article on a site or I have something to add to the discussion. It is caused by the passion displayed in the article I browsed. And on this article “Nice chest hair, asshole.” This one’s for you, reddit.. I was excited enough to drop a commenta response I do have 2 questions for you if you don’t mind. Could it be simply me or does it look like like some of the responses look like left by brain dead folks? And, if you are writing on other social sites, I would like to follow anything new you have to post. Would you list the complete urls of your community sites like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?

Stafford (gofuckyourselfwithapinecone) Mayeaux

From a 2nd generation Freethinker:

Any person who feels the need to get a tattoo of a symbol representing a group of people who reject such things is a sheep and should have remained a fairy worshiping theist.

Atheism is not a club, assmonkey. Atheism is a complete rejection of the claims made by theists, one of which is the presence of a God. One thing that theists enjoy doing is using *symbols*. It seems you can’t relinquish that idea. You must show yourself as being *part of the herd*, *a rebel to society*.

Here’s an idea: grow up and develop a philosophical stance of your own based on reason, study, individuality and maturity.

I would tell you to go get fucked but it seems you have been hit with enough pricks for now.

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